Blocking tool



Patented July 15, 1930 UNITED STATES rarsur GFFICE HUGH MCELWEE, SR., AND JOHN F. MOEL'WEE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA BLOCKING TOOL Application filed May 4, 1928.

Our invention relates to tools for breaking tightly fitted or frozen slip joints and more particularly to a blocking tool for removing handles from valve stems and the like.

In certain types of valves, such as faucets, the ends of the stems are squared, or provided with flat surfaces, snugly fitted into the valve handles and held against removal therefrom by set screws. After a valve has been in service for a long period of time, it often happens that the handle freezes to the stem and sometimes the head will be twisted off the set screw, leaving the point of the set screw still in contact with the stem.

The object of this invention is to provide a tool for assisting in the removal of such handles from the stems without mutilation of the valve or undue expenditure of energy.

The invention consists of a blocking tool having a bifurcated head adapted to straddle the stem of a valve between the valve cap and valve handle and to hold the handle against movement towards the cap when rotated to move the stem into the valve body, as set forth in the following description, pointed out in the claim and illustrated by the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary view of a faucet showing one of our tools in operative position.

Figure 2 a perspective view of the tool.

As the stems of difierent valves rise to different heights, it is advantageous to provide a tool having heads of difierent thicknesses.

The tool has a head 15, formed on one end of a handle 16 and having a thick part 17 and a thin part 18, and a head 19 formed on the other end of the handle and having a thick part 20 and a thin part 21; thin part 21 being thicker than thick part 17. While the tool may be provided with heads having any number of parts of different thicknesses, it

is found that two of such parts on each head,

properly graduated in thickness, will take care of the variations in stem heights of practically all valves commonly used whose stems will enter the slots in the heads.

It is to be understood that the tool as illustrated may be changed in various ways without departing from the spirit of the inven- Serial No. 275,116. 

